Griswold the Goblin: Islands of Fire — Chapter One

Griswold the Goblin: Islands of Fire -- Chapter One is a beautifully compact and well-produced point-and-click adventure game from B-Group Productions. Take the reins of Griswold, a droopy and half-alert fellow with ridiculous posture, as he embarks on a sure-to-be-epic quest, for no other reason than that his TV broke and he's just bored enough to look for some treasure.

Hmm... not really a fan of "you can die" gameplay in point-and-clickers. I hope it doesn't mean the game also adapted the ever-popular Sierra-like "you can get irreversibly stuck" routine.

As for other nitpicks, I'm not sure there should be a big walkthrough button right there on the main game interface and grabbing items from the inventory seems to need just one click too many. On the other hand, this discourages the all-famous "try everything-on-everything" approach, so perhaps that's a good thing.

Other then that, this seems like a rather fun adventure with pretty graphics, decent voice cast and a rather quirky sense of humor which is always a plus. Count me in for trying the future installments...

I don't like it when you lie to me, Jay. True, the game does display a "white screen" for longer than I expect -- FOREVER.

[Edit: Fixed. Reload the review page, and click the link again. I've changed the links to a site that has the proper embed code for IE. For future reference, you might want to use a better browser. -Jay]

Really excellent production values, really typical adventure game nonsense. I'm glad they built the walk through right into the game because of stupid stuff like this:

The stuff in the initial cave is obvious. Get the mug, get the candle, get the stool. Then you wander outside and around behind the cave where you obviously use the stool to check inside the hollow log to get the fishing pole. Combine rod with mug, go to lava river and "fish" for lava. So far so good.

Then I went up to the labyrinth gates and spoke with the weeping widow. Nothing. Ok, no problem. So I tried the obvious: use the mug of lava on the gate to melt the lock. Hmmm.... nothing.

Wander wander wander. Get the bugs in the jar, go back to the spider, try to give him the bugs. Nothing. Talk to the spider. Try to give him jar of bugs again. It works now. Ok, that was a bit annoying, but made some sense.

Take the picture from the web. Go back to the widow. Give picture to widow. Lots of talk, but no progress. Hmmm... try mug of lava on lock again... voila!

Seriously, WTF?

You have to first give the pic to the widow before you can use the lava on the gate. Why do these types of game impose entirely artificial orders of operations on the solution?

This kind of junk design is why adventure games have been relegated to the ghetto of computer gaming.

That game was excellent. And I liked how you can scroll through your whole inventory with the mouse wheel. Very handy. But yes, I am also not a fan of "death" in point and click games. I'd rather just be thwarted. I also don't like it when you try a combination and the text says you're being stupid or pointless. Like, right, none of the combinations that actually WORK are stupid?

Cool game though I totally HATE that I have to click the "walk" button to walk and the "grab" button to take something.

Very interesting game though, I was entertained.

However, is it just me or does this game seem oddly familiar?? Please! Tell me I'm not losing my mind but the chicken, the lumber jack - even the weeping widow -- all seems like I've played a game with these characters!! is this deja vu or am I loony!??

"What's 'Diversity'?"
"Well, I could be wrong, but I think it's the name of an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era."
"Ron, I would be surprised if the affiliates were concerned about the lack of an old, old wooden ship, but nice try."
-from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Great game so far-- i love the story telling and the character. But it seems like there are several times when you can just get stuck, if you do things out of sequence. There seems to be no way to know that, or to restart the game when you realize you made a mistake.

I liked that Griswold doesn't have Several Journeys' gross-out moments. Unfortunately, so far Griswold just isn't as likable a character as Remus, and there's no cute sidekick either. It's hard to sympathize with Griswold because he's kinda flat; what's his motivation other than "get a gem"? And isn't it silly that a goblin doesn't know where the Goblin City is?

In a fantasy work, suspending disbelief for things like magic, giant carnivorous plants, and the like is easy, but that doesn't excuse fantasy creators from giving characters believable motivations and knowledge. Either that or do some fourth wall breaking to keep the humor high.

I think this game is fairly good (I gave it a 5 star rating). I'm having trouble finding the lumberjack though... also, the goblin chasing the chicken is the same goblin that was selling a human in the original Griswold the Goblin. ;) The game also has a great deal of similarities to What Makes you Tick (a game I found while searching through the old Weekend Downloads)

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